Mastoiditis in a paediatric population: a review of 11 years experience in management.

Objective: This study explores the experience at Sydney Children's Hospital (SCH) managing children with acute mastoiditis and establishes a robust treatment algorithm.

Methods: Retrospective review of all patients admitted to SCH with an ICD-10 coding of "Mastoiditis" from 1 January 1996 through 31 December 2006 inclusive. Criteria assessed included demographic characteristics, clinical features, symptom duration and treatment initiated by the general practitioner.

Emergency surgery after unsuccessful coronary angioplasty: a review of 15 years' experience.

Background: Emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is occasionally necessary for failed percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The aim of this study was to assess the outcome of patients receiving emergency CABG after unsuccessful PTCA over a 15-year study period.

Methods: From January 1982 through December 1996, 74 patients underwent emergency CABG after unsuccessful PTCA (crash group).

Atypical presentation of intramedullary spinal cord lesion.

We report a patient who presented with atypical clinical manifestations including worsening abdominal pain from an intramedullary spinal cord lesion. It is important to consider non-abdominal causes of abdominal pain for patients with an atypical presentation. The described case demonstrates the challenges facing the physician with the early diagnosis of acute abdominal pain.

Total thyroidectomy is now the preferred option for the surgical management of Graves' disease.

Purpose: Subtotal thyroidectomy has been advocated as the standard treatment for Graves' disease because of the possibility of avoiding thyroxine therapy as well as the assumed lower risk of complications compared to total thyroidectomy. However, the long-term results of subtotal thyroidectomy are not as good as they were previously believed to be, as evidenced by the increasing incidence of hypothyroidism. If the risk of complications from total thyroidectomy is no higher,then that procedure offers significant advantages in the surgical management of Graves' disease.

Management of acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion.

Background: This review examines the surgical management of acute superior mesenteric artery (SMA) occlusion and the impact of interventional radiology techniques.

Methods: Eight consecutive patients with SMA occlusion were treated at the Lismore Base Hospital, Lismore, NSW, Australia, from 1996 through to 2001 and of these, one patient was managed successfully with catheter-directed lytic therapy. The study group included five male and three female patients with a mean age of 71.